Going to the seaside? Don't forget your tie.
No one knows Eastbourne quite like Chris Mannion. Every night, the popular veteran entertainer makes his way between seafront hotels, plugs in his double-deck electric organ and entices the elderly residents to the dancefloor. For an hour or two, the clock is wound back as they tango their way around the room to tunes like O Sole Milo – popularised in the 1980s Cornetto ads. Mannion dresses to impress his clientele in the elaborate garb of an old-style variety performer. But his schedule doesn’t allow for a trip to the London Palladium. Just a half-mile drive down the coast and another of his regular evening appointments. Predictability and tradition are important to most of the holiday-makers who make their annual pilgrimage to the south coast. At one particular three-star hotel, gentlemen are politely requested, out of courtesy to the ladies, to remember their tie for dinner. Most male guests seem happy to comply with this quaint regulation, but there are a few unchallenged re...
